“LA GRANDE BELEZZA” OF DESIGN - THE MUSEUM OF DESIGN AT LA TRIENNALE DI MILANO | Contemporary Lynx - print and online magazine on art & visual culture

La Triennale di Milano is an art and design museum located in the Milanese Parco Sempione, adjacent to the gardens of the Sforza Castle and to the Arch of Peace, two of the main landmarks of Milan. It was founded in 2007 as a Design Museum, and during its existence, with the predominance depending on the current management, floated always between art and design. From the infinite appreciation of design and beauty, inside the spacious gallery, the permanent exhibition “Museo del Design Italiano” emerges. La Triennale di Milano, proud to have collected the core of national design treasures from 1927 until now, rightly decides to show them off.

© Triennale Milano, photo: Gianluca DiIoia

“The Collection”, also known as “La Collezione”, is only one of an exceeding amount of various selections, anthologies and assemblies of Italian creative outlet. It’s not surprising, when we acknowledge their national delight to be surrounded by beautiful objects, the considerable self-respect (not to say self-admiration), and, most importantly, creative talent spread exceptionally densely among designers and fashionists. “La Collezione” is described as the fruit of stimuli of a noble, scientific committee consisting of Paola Antonelli, Andrea Branzi, Mario Bellini, Antonio Citterio, Michele De Lucchi, Piero Lissoni, Claudio Luti, Fabio Novembre, Patricia Urquiola. These are, in fact, essential names in the field of design and architecture, who can be trusted.

In the collection there are currently 1600 objects, all of which are destined to be shown to the public in the near future. In the present display, we encounter only the most representative and iconic pieces. The expositive space occupies an average-sized, corridor-like curve room, on the ground floor, called (as is rather easy to guess) “The Curve”. In the collection there are furniture pieces, accessories, electronics – over three hundred models from Giovanni Sacchi collection, over three thousand drawings by Alessandro Mendini, above five hundred graphic artifacts from the Graphic Collection of the history of the Milan Triennale and its 21 editions, photographic and documentary sources of the Triennale history, its editions and exhibitions, sixty garments and patterns from the Nanni Strada Collection, 1265 books, materials and documents on the theme of the color in the Clino Trini Castelli Color Library collection, 566 drawings and graphic communication projects from the Sirio Galli Collection, graphic materials related to the Italian design of the seventies and nineties.

Designers’ creations are exposed chronologically and linearly so the viewers’ attention is paid almost exclusively to the piece itself. The whole process of visiting the Museum is similar to swimming. After every breath, after every little sight at the astonishing piece, then a deep dive in a designer’s story, and just suddenly after, the fresh, new discovery, among the light-blue walls, never being actually able to see the horizon, even if it’s just around the corner (since there is always a curve in front). The exhibition provides pleasurable insights into history. As mentioned, a viewer can actually “call” a designer, through the antique phone put nearby the work. After taking it up, a designer’s voice presents the context of creating the object, a funny fact or few words about himself. The remarkable history of the Italian design excites and seems at hand.

Edited by Lisa Barham